Good morning, everybody. How are y'all doing this morning? Amen. Alright, go ahead and turn your Bibles to James chapter number 4. James chapter number 4. Oh man, I was up at 6 this morning, still struggling over what I was going to preach. Man, you preachers know that is not a lot of fun at all. So you're sitting there stressing out. And then I got confirmation of what I was supposed to preach, man. I was sitting there. I had made my cup of coffee this morning. I walked into my office and I sat down. And I've been sitting there for about an hour, and for some reason, I had one of them moments. I was like, do I have any coffee left? So I reached up, and I went like this. And when I went to look, coffee just spilled everywhere. And I was like, yep, this is what I'm supposed to preach. The devil is trying to hinder it this morning. I was like, but that's not how you get confirmation, just in case you were wondering, but that's how I felt this morning, man. It was something like, but anyways, James chapter number four, verse number 11. This morning, I feel like I say this every single time I get up here, that I've always tried to just preach what the Lord's dealing with me about in certain times and different parts of my life, but this is something that I've always struggled with and I think Most people struggle with this. But it's something that the Lord's dealing with me about. And I just wanted to preach on that this morning. And I'm not preaching out of a place of authority because this is something that I do not have right in my life. I want it to be right in my life. But we're just going to see what the Bible has to say about it. And I'm going to pray the Lord can use me this morning in spite of me because I know what I am. And I was thinking about that this morning, how faithful God is to us. How many times, because I think back in my life, even just, you know, the past year, two years, three years, and different stuff in my life happening, how unfaithful at times that I've been to Him. And still, without fail, He's always faithful to me. He never changes. He's always the same. And I just want to thank the Lord for that this morning. Verse number 11 in chapter 4 of James, the Bible says, There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another?" This morning I'm wanting to focus on that first part of verse number 11 where it says, speak not evil one of another brethren. If you look down further on in the latter part of that chapter, it goes on to say, You know, you can make plans, say tomorrow you want to make plans to go down to a certain city. You don't know what's going to happen on tomorrow because your life is a vapor. It appears for a little while and vanishes away. The Lord's trying to tell us how unimportant we are and how our lives really are so fragile. And He's trying to put us in a mindset that we are nothing in the grand scheme of things. It says in verse 12 that He's the one and only lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. He has the power of life and death in his hands, and we are nothing. And so he's telling us, who are we that we're going to judge one another? He's the lawgiver. He's the one that's over the law. He's the one that's supposed to judge. We're not the ones that are supposed to judge. We're not the ones supposed to be speaking evil one of another. So that's what I'm going to preach on this morning, is that particular phrase. Let's pray this morning. Heavenly Father, Lord, You see, my mind is all over the place this morning. I know this is what You've given me, Lord. I pray that You could just take what You've given me, Lord, and it makes sense for Your people this morning. Your Bible says that Your Word will not return void, Lord. And I pray that you help me this morning. Hide me behind the cross, Lord. And just bless the message this morning. Bless the Lord to hear. Lord, help us to take it and apply it to our lives. And bless the Sunday School classes this morning as the teachers are teaching, Lord. And everything will be done according to your perfect will. In your name we ask it. Amen. We're right here, and we're talking about that particular phrase, speak not evil one of another. And it's, you know, the chapter before, that's where we're going. In James, chapter number 3, there's so much about the tongue and the mouth that the Bible deals with here, and that's where we're going to go. We're going to go to James, chapter number 3, right across the page. We're just going to kind of read through this chapter and say some different things the Lord that has dealt with me about. And this, nothing that I'm going to say this morning is something that we've really never heard. Like I was reading through this and I'm like, is this what I'm supposed to preach this morning? Because it's so simple. Everything I've heard my entire life, but sometimes we just need to be reminded. We need to be brought into remembrance of different things. Bible says in verse number one, You can go through this whole entire life and try to do your best not to offend people, and you're going to offend people. That's just how it is. That's the power of the tongue. People are going to be offended by things. But the truth is, most of the time, it's not like we're just trying not to offend people. We go out of our way sometimes to offend people. in this life. But the thing is, you'd be a perfect man if you never offended anybody with your tongue. But the Bible says that you could control the whole entire body if you could control the power of the tongue. We read in verse number three, Behold, also the ships, which they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell." You see, in these verses, the word fire, I believe, is used four times. And I even read in some other verses, we'll read later on in Proverbs, the tongue is often related with fire because it's destructive. I mean, it is set on fire of hell is what the Bible says. We don't really, I don't think we realize the power our tongue has. I don't believe we realize the power words have. There's a verse, it's not necessarily related to dealing with speaking evil of one another, or even the power of the tongue we have in each other's lives. What it does, it talks about in Proverbs, it says, hear counsel, receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in the latter end. And I was sitting there thinking about that verse, how much the power of words have, you know, whenever you've been in a service and you've heard a message, that counsel and you receive it, how much it can change your life. It can make you a wiser person. And so much even more so, Whenever you give somebody, or if you take bad counsel, you receive a lie. How much more that can affect your life when it comes to the relationships we have inside the church. And so the power of the tongue is very strong, and it is related to fire because it's destructive. And also I see in verse number six where it says that it defileth the whole body. Of course, your tongue, you know, out of abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And what you speak, usually you'll live out in your own life. Heard that, heard dad say that many times, and I've seen that in my own life. When you start desiring certain things and speaking it and always talking about it, you start to live that out in your life. Well, not only just in our own bodies does it defile our body, but the whole body of Christ as a whole. I've seen so many churches that have been serving the Lord faithfully, and everybody's on fire, and then there's a situation that happens, and people start to pick sides, people start to talk about this person and that person, and then the whole church is divided over something so childish that the whole body of Christ is defiled because of the tongue. and it's so dangerous. Verse number seven says, For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth the fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh? Man, this convicted me. Because how many times do we come to church on a Sunday morning, we're dressed in our Sunday best, we come in, You know, we're shaking everybody's hand. Brother, man, it's good to see you today. So glad to see you in the Lord's house. And we got this whole alpha word facade of, man, we're just, we're in love with the Lord. And we get up here and we sing in the choir. We sing in the congregationals. We're praising the Lord. We're singing His praises. But then you don't even have to be, you don't have to have even a big ought with a brother, but you have something against another brother in Christ or sister in Christ or whatever it is. And you begin, maybe you, during the week or something, you may talk about that person in a negative kind of way or shed them in a negative light towards another brother or sister. So, and it talks about that you sit there and you bless God, but then you sit there and you curse a brother who is of the similitude of God. That means he's the same image of God. He's made in the likeness of God. But we're going to sit there and bless God, but then we're going to curse his children. How does that make sense? That doesn't make sense. You can't have bitter and sweet water coming out of the same well. So we need to take heed to what the Bible is saying here. I mean, we're brothers and sisters in Christ, and what does the devil want? The devil, he can't have the victory over my soul anymore. I'm the Lord's, I'm bought with a price, therefore I am God's, okay? And he's bought me with his blood. So the devil can't have me anymore. And those of you who are saved in here, he can't have you, but what he can have is division in the house of God. Because he realizes if we stand together and we're unified, this world is gonna be a much better place. But how can we sit there and we share the love of God to a brother? or excuse me, we share the love of God to a sinner and talk about how great Christianity is and try to win a lost soul, but we have all with our brothers and sisters in Christ. How is that supposed to win a lost and dying world? That's not. So the devil realizes that if he can get us divided, if he can keep us separated with another brother in Christ, he's got the victory because we're at odds with one another. It's not about, you know, getting your soul anymore. It's about keeping you in bondage to your sin and to all these different things. And if you look in chapter four, It talks about where these wars and these fightings come amongst us. It comes from our lust. It comes from our flesh, is what it says in chapter 4 of James. So we have to make sure that we're keeping ourselves submitted to God each and every day so we can be submitted to each other, okay? Verse number, where did we end off? I think it was verse number 12, yeah. It says, Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." I think a lot of times, at least in my own life, I was reading that verse there where it says, talking about that earthly wisdom, talking about the bitter envying and strife and all that stuff. I think a lot of time that we almost justify having an aught with a brother. Division is not of God. I don't know if you know that, but division among the brethren, that's not of God. That's of the devil. He wants division. We already said that. And so, but the thing is, so many times we want to justify our division and all with our brother because we are right. We're the ones who are right. No one in a situation, whenever you have a problem with a brother or sister or another person, never in that situation are you wrong. You are the perfect one. You are the one that's the victim. If the world was like you, man, we'd all be living in peace. Kumbaya. The world would be a better place if everyone was you. That's how we think. But the truth is, you have something to do with that problem you have with a brother or sister. But the thing is, we justify that division because we're right, and they're the ones that are wrong. But the truth is, that's an earthly devilish wisdom. That's a dividing wisdom. But the true wisdom that is from heaven, which says in verse 17, it's first pure and peaceable. And the Bible says that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Peace doesn't just happen. You have to keep peace with people. It takes effort, like you can't just expect people just to like you all the time. You have to be a friendly person. You have to be a peaceable person to keep peace with people because people are hard to get along with. Yesterday we were not just this is story popped my head yesterday. We were we were out on the lake and we were swimming by this person's dock. Benjamin, my brother. He reached down in the water, and he felt something, and it was a pipe. So he reaches down, and he picks up this pipe, and he's like, oh, man, look at this pipe. And he picks it up out of the water, and I'm looking, and I'm like, man, that pipe's running up on their property. You probably better put that back in the water. So this lady comes walking out. That's my pipe. We get water from there. You better put it back in the water. I got your boat number, all this kind of stuff. And you know, you start and everybody on our boat was like, man, she's got nothing better to do than come out. She, you know, she sits around all day looking for people. I'm like, man, that's her property. You know, we should be getting out of here. All this kind of stuff. The thing is, you're going to have odds with people, you know, it's just part of life. But if you don't choose to make peace with people and you choose when somebody gets mad at you or says something to you and you choose to bow up in pride, Because that's the problem. Our pride is the problem. We choose to get bowed up with pride and we want to, you know, we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. And we get bowed up in pride at another brother or sister because they said something to us. Well, whoop-dee-doo. You know, just let it go. Move on. Peace is more important than unity. Peace is more important than division. Unity is more important, you know, than you being right in a situation or being offended. It doesn't really matter. You're not that important. I mean, I'm not that important either, so. But, so verse, we see that, you know, that if you have, righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 10 says, only by pride cometh contention, but with the well-advised is wisdom. Pride is the reason contention comes, is because we think so much of ourselves, and it causes that division. Pride is man, pride is the Pride is like the first sin. If you read in the Bible, the devil got lifted up in pride, it caused division in heaven. And that's what he wants each and every one of us to have in our lives is this pride, but we need to humble ourselves. You really want to be exalted? You need to humble yourselves. That's what the Bible says. 1 Corinthians chapter number 13 is where we're going to go. talking about the tongue and talking about our relationships with each other in the body of Christ, you can't help but look at charity. I mean, charity is the answer to this problem. Charity. And I mean, Last time I checked, God, He didn't have to save you. God didn't have to do nothing for you, but He chose to have grace in your life. So much, I mean, and we try to, and that's what I'm talking about with pride, we try to, we think so much of ourselves in a situation happens with somebody and you, man, they didn't come up and shake my hand or, Man, they all went somewhere and they didn't invite me or they started this ministry. They didn't come and ask if I wanted to be a part of it. Well, did you go to them? And did you say, well, man, I want to be part of this ministry. I want to be used. So many different things that people get offended by. And the truth is, it's like, that if you don't, the truth is you get so offended by it because you think that you are so important to other people. The truth is people, they care about you, but you're not that important. You know, I mean, pride is the pride just really, really. something that I know I struggle with because I want to sit there and think that you know everybody thinks I'm important but I'm not and so we look above we look in 1st Corinthians chapter number 13 it talks about having charity so we call it the love chapter but it's the charity chapter to me chapter 13 verse 1 it says though I speak with the tongues of men I and angels, and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. James chapter 1, I'll just read it real quick for you, says, James chapter 1 verse 26 says, If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man religion is vain. What is our religion? If we're just going to sit there, if we're going to do all these different things, you're going to, you know, bend over backwards for somebody, give them the shirt off your back, you're going to visit all the widows you're going to go and you're going to give of your money to the poor, all these different things, but then you have this chip on your shoulder and you don't have any charity towards anybody and you're just a grumpy person. And you have no grace with anybody. God had a lot of grace with you, but you choose not to have grace with anybody. It's vain. Your religion is vain, is what the Bible says. It's vain. And if we look at verse number four, it says, I'm in James. I'm not in 1 Corinthians. I've got to get back over here where y'all are. Give me a second. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. All of a sudden you can't find anything in the Bible whenever you're up here. That's how it is. 1 Corinthians 13. Okay, verse number 4 says, and is kind, charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, it is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, charity never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. You see in verse four through eight, charity's qualities. Man, I read that and I'm like, man, I come up so short in all those different areas. And I think, you know, because you're doing so much for the Lord, you're trying to live a life that's pleasing and you're trying to be involved in all these different ministries, but then you fail to have charity, man. Even we're so, man, we can deceive ourselves so much. I mean, even just in ministries, you could be in the middle of teaching a Sunday school lesson. You can be in the middle of singing in the choir. You can be in the middle of witnessing and the person you're doing it with could do something that aggravates you. Then you have a terrible attitude the whole time you're trying to minister for the Lord. But if you're doing it with a terrible attitude, it's all vain. You know, so we deceive ourselves because we're doing the right thing, but we're not doing it with the right attitude. We need to focus on keeping unity, because unity is more important than being right. And I know I'm saying that over and over again, but that's just what's on my heart this morning. In verse number 9, it says, For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Verse 11, I know we, as men, we joke about this stuff, just different things, we put away childish things, but It's very, man, this verse is very convicting. It says, When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. I know a lot of people, and even myself sometimes, you still think like a child. You think we would get past the point of, they did this to me, so I'm going to do it to them. You see, man, you watch kids playing with a toy and one of them throws something at the other child, then they gotta get something bigger and throw it at them. And it's back and forth. But even in our Christian lives as adults, we still do the same thing. Somebody says this about us, we gotta make a, we gotta even get them back even better. And it's just continuing on and on. But when I became a man, I put away those childish things. I put away dealing with things in a childish way or childish differences. We need to put them aside. We need to put them aside. And then verse 12, read the rest of the chapter, says, I was looking through, like I said, different verses and stuff in Proverbs, but before we go there, I'm going to go to James 5.16. James 5.16, verse 16. This, I believe, is, of course, having charity with each other, but this particular verse, I think, too, a lot of times, at least in my own life, you could have problems with somebody. Okay, you know a situation, two people have a problem with each other, whatever it is, and you're friends with both of them, or else you know both of them, and they decide, one person decides to come to you and tell you why they don't like the other one, and then you have to sit there and listen and say, okay, well, I'll, you know, thanks for telling me, whatever, I don't really care to be honest with you. But then the other person comes and tells you how they feel about the other person, so on and so forth. And there's this back and forth, but they never talk to each other about the problem. And I've had to be careful in my own life that if I have a problem with somebody that I just I don't go talk to somebody I know is going to be on my side with a situation or their side. Go talk to the person you have a problem with. And it'll be over with. It's as simple as that. But we don't like to do that. We like to be tailbears going about in other men's matters and dealing and trying. We like drama too. People are nosy and they like drama. I'm guilty of it. But we like that. We like to feed off that. It's a part of our lust and our sin nature and our flesh. But this particular verse here, I think, would fix a lot of problems. If we look at James 5, verse 16, If I would spend as much time praying about a situation with somebody as I did talking about them, I think that the situation would take care of itself, and I think that I would have a much better attitude with dealing with those people. The Bible says to pray for your enemies, to pray for those who despitefully use you. If I would spend as much time doing that as I did talking about them, or trying to win somebody over on my side, or whatever it is, the problem would take care of itself, and I wouldn't even have to worry about it anymore. We spend so much of our effort on frivolous things that mean nothing, instead of a lost and dying world that is going to hell, and we can't even hand out a gospel tract, but we can spend an hour and a half talking about somebody. You know, that's the way I look at it. So, verse, that was James 5, 16. If we go down to, if we go over to Proverbs chapter number 12, Proverbs chapter 12, There's about, there's 10 verses here, 13 through 23, and I'm not going to read all of them, just for sake of time, but you can go through and you can compare the wicked, the wicked mouth to the mouth of the righteous, and just the contrast you see in the person, you know, in this person's life, and it's a big difference. But I was just wanting to focus on verse 23 of this chapter. It says, A prudent man concealeth knowledge, But the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness. There is times in my own life that you may know something about a certain situation with somebody, or you may know of different things that have happened. And you hear somebody say something about whatever the situation is. And you know that what they're saying is not right. And you know it's not true. It's not your place to sit there and correct that. That's not your place to say, well, that's not right. This is actually what happened, and this is what happened, and this is what happened. That's not my place. You know, who are we? We're not in the place of God. So many times we put ourselves in the place of God, and we want to work it out. But the Bible says, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. So if we put it in God's hand, it'll take care of itself. But we like to intermeddle with everything. And it's a prudent man, he concealeth knowledge. So a lot of time, but it says a fool, he proclaimeth foolishness. Instead of sometimes just saying what we think and just going ahead and spouting it, it'd be better to just hold that knowledge in and let God deal with it. There's a lot of different verses I have and we're coming up. on time right now, but if you just look through Proverbs, there's so many different verses about the tongue. I don't have time to go through and read them all, but there are so many verses just how the tongue has the power of life and death, and whoso keepeth his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles, and all these different things that we need to take and we need to apply to our lives, okay, because they're very important. I love this verse. I read it in Psalm 141 verse 3. David said, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. If we would pray that every single day, man, how much of a difference it would make in our relationships. That if we would ask the Lord to just put a filter in front of our mouths, put a filter in our mind that we wouldn't say the wrong thing or say something to somebody to offend them, because it's probably not that important what you're feeling all upset about. So if we would pray that every single day, Ephesians 4.3 says, And that is the purpose of this body and this assembly. is for us to dwell together in unity. But we can't do that if we're going around speaking evil of one another and putting ourself in the place of God. And this morning, I just I just wanted. I know it's not really a typical Sunday morning message, and I didn't want to preach it because this is something that I don't necessarily have right in my life. But I knew that God wanted me to preach it. And this is something that I think if we apply in our lives and we have grace and charity with one another, we can live a more quiet and peaceable life with all godliness and honesty. And that's all I have this morning. Let's pray. Heavenly follower, thank you so much. For this morning Lord and give me this message a lot. I pray that someone got help from it this morning I pray that you help me have a right spirit this morning. I didn't want to get up here and speak and it returned void Lord So thank you so much for everything you've done for us bless the next hour to come bless dad as he preaches in your name We ask it